


Bloom and Thorn

by Lauren (notalwaysweak)



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-11-14
Updated: 2007-11-14
Packaged: 2017-10-05 20:59:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/45976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notalwaysweak/pseuds/Lauren
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I wrote this for a Hogwarts Elite gift exchange back in November 2007. It's got Neville and Draco and no slash. SHOCK HORROR.</p><p>Written for Fiona Fawkes; I hope it pleases.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bloom and Thorn

**Author's Note:**

> Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

Neville was in the extremely restricted access area, where the plants had their own individual spaces and in some cases their own restraints, when the bell rang out on the shop counter. He closed the pitcher plant's cage door - making a mental note to warn the girls not to go near it until it had had its mouse - and hurried out to the front.

Malfoy had aged well. His hair was still blond and sleek, well kept, and though his pointed face had rounded out a little, he was still essentially the image of the perfect Slytherin schoolboy. Had he been wearing black school robes and green-and-silver tie instead of informal dark blue robes, he would have looked fresh out of his last NEWT. He had a gift-wrapped box under one arm.

'What do you want, Malfoy?' Neville asked, not exactly in the most pleasant of tones.

'Peace, Longbottom,' Malfoy said. 'I'm not here to fight with you. I'm looking for flowers for my wife. I thought you might be able to help me.'

'This isn't a florist. It's a herbarium.' Neville gestured around. 'Useful plants for making potions. You're a Slytherin, you ought to know about potions.' He couldn't help it; being around Malfoy just naturally brought out his sarcastic side. It had to be a defence mechanism based on the way Malfoy usually spoke.

'I know that. But you're the only one open at this time of night.'

Startled, Neville looked up at the clock over the door to the back room. It was already seven o'clock. He hadn't noticed the darkness drawing in, bright as the back room was with various heat-lamps and ultra-violet spotlights.

'I might have known you wouldn't come in here voluntarily.'

Malfoy sighed. 'Look. It's our fourth wedding anniversary today and I forgot. I just want something pretty to go with the chocolates I've already bought, so that she only gives me the you-forgot-but-I'll-forgive-you look instead of the I'm-going-to-freeze-you-out-for-a-week look.'

Neville considered getting the pitcher plant for a wicked half-second, but he came out from behind the counter and went to the rose garden instead. To be honest, more than a few of the plants he grew for their various potion-related purposes also happened to be very pretty, and it was a matter of minutes to cut a few and make a passable bouquet using a sheet of pink tissue paper. He got requests like this every so often, but usually from people he considered friends.

'Thanks.' Malfoy's hand closed around the crackly paper. 'What do I owe you?'

_Seven years of constant put-downs and bullying. Seven years of looking down that pointy nose of yours and sneering. Seven years of your damned Slytherin superiority that just never unbent, not even when it was you in the line of fire. If you paid me what you owe me for those seven years, you'd be destitute. _

'Just take them,' he said instead, turning away from Malfoy to put the scissors he'd used to trim off the thorns away.

'Longbottom, be serious.'

'I am being serious. I want you out of my shop. Just go. Rejoice in the fact that not a Knut of your precious fortune will be sullied by my grubby fingers.'

Malfoy sighed. 'I didn't really come in here for flowers,' he said. 'I came in here to apologise.'

Neville turned back around, after putting the scissors down so that he didn't do anything regrettable with them. 'You what?'

'I was an insufferable git the whole time we were at school. More than that, I-' But whatever he had intended to say next got choked up in his throat. 'Anyway. I just wanted to. You know. To apologise for all of it.'

'You really think you can come in here and say sorry and make it all better,' Neville said in wonder. 'What the _hell_ makes you think that that's enough?'

Malfoy looked down at the flowers. 'I know it's not enough. Nothing is ever going to be enough. I just wanted to try for _almost_ enough.'

'Get out,' Neville said.

'Longbottom-'

'_Out_.'

Malfoy went. The bell jingled. Neville crossed the shop floor and turned the thumb-latch.

That was the third time in two years, now; he wondered what Malfoy's excuse would be the next time, and whether he would agree to hear Malfoy out, or whether Malfoy's voice would still sound craven and ridiculous. There were things that Malfoy had said and done that rankled in his heart like a burning splinter, but even if he couldn't forgive them, there was always the possibility that he might enjoy Malfoy crawling to him about it.

He had the feeling that, after this long, maybe it was finally time to listen.

On a whim, he unlocked the door again and looked out into the falling snow. Malfoy was a dark shape only a few feet away at the bus stop, a shape that turned at the sound of the bell jingling over the door.

'Perhaps,' Neville said, 'you'd like to wait in here for the bus. Out of the cold.'

Malfoy's face did not split with a wide grin, but the tiny uncertain smile that he gave Neville was enough. 'Thank you.'

 


End file.
